Submit your Article

A meeting of the House of Representatives called for tomorrow has been postponed till February 14.

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota had called the meeting 1 pm tomorrow.

Pasting a notice, the Parliament Secretariat said that the meeting has been postponed for some special reasons.

The meeting has been postponed at a time when Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has intensified efforts to forge a common ground on Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

Speaker Sapkota has called the next meeting for 1 pm on February 14, General Secretary of the Parliament Secretariat Bharat Raj Gautam said.

Earlier, the meeting called for January 30 was postponed by 10 days due to the MCC.

The main opposition CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry held a meeting at the former's residence in Balkot, Bhaktapur on Tuesday.

During the meeting, the duo discussed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and other contemporary political issues, a source said.

At a time when the MCC compact had reached  a decisive point, Oli and Berry held a meeting  for almost one hour.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had asked time till February 28 for the parliamentary ratification of the MCC.

However, Speaker Agni Sapkota said that national consensus is necessary to table the MCC in the Parliament.

Similarly, Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal have been saying that the MCC cannot be endorsed in the existing form.

Nepali Congress central member Shekhar Koirala also reached Balkot to hold a meeting with Oli this evening.

Civil society members have urged the political parties to file an impeachment motion against Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota.

Issuing a statement issued on Tuesday, they said that it is the institutional and legal duty of the Speaker to facilitate the placement of all bills presented by the Government of Nepal before the House for discussion.

They also said that it is to ensure the fair and smooth conduct of parliamentary proceedings that the person elevated to the post of Speaker is required to ipso facto sever all links to his/her political party.

This explains the tradition requiring the person elected Speaker to immediately resign from any and all positions linked to political parties, the statement read.

It is expected that the Speaker exhibits full neutrality in dealing with all political parties large or small. Our parliamentary system does not envisage an executive function for the Speaker, and the constitution and relevant laws regard the speaker as a facilitator to ensure the smooth functioning of the House of Representatives. Against these expectations, Agni Sapkota has continuously violated the responsibilities and expectations vested in him, the statement further read.

“The political parties should take immediate steps to protect the values of the parliamentary system by taking decisions regarding the activities of Speaker Sapkota,” the statement read.

“In the same order, Supreme Court justices Shah and Osti state: “The First Information Report in relation to the events of April-May 2005 is in the form of a murder case against six defendants including Agni Sapkota. The relevant court papers indicate that the District Police communicated to other police offices to conduct a search in order to produce the defendants, and also that the defendants could not be located.” The court order calls upon Agni Sapkota to exhibit personal morality and good judgment by assisting the investigation,” the civil society members said in the statement.

For more than a decade, Agni Sapkota has studiously ignored the series of Supreme Court orders in relation to the murder case. Influencing the police administration by virtue of his position of power as Member of Parliament and minister in the cabinet and by remaining an absconder on the murder case of Arjun Lama, Agni Sapkota is responsible for obstructing justice in the particular case and contributing to the general weakening of the law and justice system in the country,” the civil society members said, adding, “It is crystal clear that the police has been intimidated in conducting investigations against a person who has continuously occupied high positions from Member of Parliament to minister, and currently Speaker of the House of Representatives. Thus, on the one hand Agni Sapkota is misusing his position to obstruct justice, which itself is a punishable offense; on the other hand, he has violated Purnimaya Lama’s right to justice and in the process provided the worst example of impunity in the country.”

It has become clear from the events and facts listed above that Agni Sapkota is a morally bankrupt individual who for years has been absconding from the police whilst accused of murder and has been unable to show neutrality required of his current position. There could have been no expectation that a person of such character flaws would exhibit the high values required from the Speaker of Parliament, the statement read. As a result, the period since Agni Sapkota has occupied the Speaker’s chair has been marked by a serious deterioration in the workings of the House of Representatives.

The statement was signed by Purnimaya Lama, Badri Prasad Bhusal, Bhagiram Chaudhary, Indra Prasad Aryal, Kanak Mani Dixit, Kedar Narshing KC, Maina Karki, Manamunishwar Acharya, Rajan Kuikel, Sabitri Shrestha, Suman Adhikari, Surya Bahadur Adhikari, Sushil Pyakurel and Yagya Raj Thapa.

A writ petition has been filed at the Surkhet High Court against the Karnali Province for not being inclusive while expanding the Cabinet.

Advocate Sher Bahadur Khatri and INSEC officer Tika Bista filed the petition at the high court on Tuesday.

The office of Province Chief, Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers have been made defendants.

INSEC officer Tika Bista said that the writ petition has been filed at the high court for not including women and Dalit communities while expanding the council of ministers of the Karnali Province.

Earlier, Binda Man Bista was appointed as the Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning and Chandra Bahadur Shahi as the Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives.

People have been criticising the Karnali Province for forming an eight-member Cabinet in the Karnali Province by not including the women and Dalit communities.

The petitioners have demanded revocation of the decision to form the Cabinet.

Nepal recorded 1, 957 new Covid-19 cases and 11 deaths on Tuesday. 

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 8,587 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 1,184 returned positive. Likewise, 4,105 people underwent antigen tests, of which 773 tested positive.

The Ministry said that 5,103 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 36,181 active cases in the country.

India's daily Covid-19 tally continued to fall on Tuesday as the country logged 67,597 fresh cases of the coronavirus disease in the last 24 hours, according to Union health ministry.

The related death toll saw a jump of 1,188, and now stands at 5,04,062, the ministry's further said in its daily health bulletin, Hindustan Times reported.

With Tuesday's fresh cases, the overall caseload has reached 42,339,611, the ministry data showed.

With cases falling steadily, the positivity rate has come down to 5.02 per cent. It was 7.25 per cent on Monday, as per the ministry data. While the weekly positivity rate is at 8.30 per cent.

The active caseload is at 9,94,891, comprising 2.35 per cent of the total case cases. The nationwide recovery rate surged at 96.46 per cent with as many as 4,08,40,658 people recovering from the disease so far.

There were 1,80,456 recoveries in a span of 24-hours.

With the emergence of the Omicron variant, India saw a multifold rise in daily Covid-19 cases earlier this year. It fell below the 1 lakh-mark on Monday when the country recorded 83,876 cases in a single-day rise.

At the time of the peak, the number had reached above 3-lakh-mark. During the second wave of the virus last year, it had crossed the 4-lakh mark at the time of peak

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE), the sole secondary market of the country, plunged by 16.30 points to close at 2,835.58 points on Tuesday.

A total of 12,053,751 units of shares of 230 companies were traded for Rs 6.28 billion.

Similarly, the sensitive index fell 2.82 points to reach 532.49 points.

In today’s market, all sub-indices saw red except for Trading, Hotels and Tourism, Non Life Insurance, Manu, & Pro and Mutual Fund.

Meanwhile, Nepal Insurance Co. Limited was the top gainer for today, with its price surging by 3.83 percent. Liberty Energy Company Limited was the top loser as its price fell by 6.27 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalisation stood at Rs 4.00 trillion.

Diplomatic efforts to defuse the tensions around Ukraine continued on Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron expected in Kyiv the day after hours of talks with the Russian leader in Moscow yielded no apparent breakthroughs. 

Macron is set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as fears of a possible Russian invasion mount. Moscow has massed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, but insists it has no plans to attack Ukraine. The Kremlin has demanded guarantees from the West that NATO will not accept Ukraine and other former Soviet nations as members, halt weapon deployments there and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe — demands the U.S. and NATO reject as nonstarters. 

Western leaders in recent weeks have engaged in high-level diplomacy in the hope of de-escalating the tensions and preventing an attack.